RPI Day 5 Planning our Program

I have been looking forward to today's discussions on pulling our program together as I have found with so many changes and adaptations this year, I feel like some of my routine practices have eluded me and after last time's discussion on the  Reader Apprenticeship model I am really keen to see how I can implement it well in my junior secondary setting.  I have been totally successful with getting my students independent enough at times to engage regularly enough in a guided reading program and I really want to be able to do this by next year.  

Then there are the,,,,, "but...but .... buts" in my head.  Our kura is undergoing some interesting new changes that are still being worked out and wanting to get my head around the Reading Apprenticeship model in secondary was seeming a bit daunting with all the rest of the curriculum, timetable, staffing and sometimes resource challenges.  Thankfully Kiri helped make it seem accessible today with these key slides:

This first one - gave me some cool ideas as to how to improve some things further and perhaps teach students how to use calendar for themselves if I use it to show planning.  More than that, this slide reminded me that my Reading Apprenticeship program does not need to look exactly like the primary Guided Reading Program, which I found tough to keep going as it is so fast for squirmy little ones who really want your attention.  (Hats off to those primary  teachers all the time for their reading/writing/maths rotations - they are pros!) But first I amy need to book a session with Kerry from Manaiakalani to do so.  (Thankful too that both Kiri and Kerry are coming to Ōtaki College next week for a staff PLD session and I can touch base then). 

This guideline slide by Kiri - is a lifesaver for me!  It has taken a bit of pressure off to help me think about how I may make this manageable as I only see my students about 7 times a week for both English and Social Sciences (in Humanities).  Often I teach the content/skills integrated but sometimes it feels more like it is integrated literacy in Social Sciences and not as much English/literary skill building as I would like in groups.  This slide makes me think, I can arrange to see most groups twicea a week and perhaps 1 group three times a week.

Program design - supports for independent learning:  

Discussions around building and designing our program then led naturally to different resources - apps in this case.  I am keen to explore Readworks as I think it has some features that might be more useful for Humanities 9.  Watch this space for further developments.  I hope our departments or even kura might engage in conversations around which apps/tools we might use to help:

a) narrow costs for departments

b) lesson the variety to be more purposeful selection and targetted for student use

to support staff (students and whanau) who get overwhelmed and confused about different apps and programs being used in different departments.

Lastly - I have known that I let my mahi trackers go a bit this year.  Time to get them back on board and may try a new one as I fumbled and mucked up so much last year trying to zhuzh them up too much last year.

I am looking forward to having a play with my overall program design this next few weeks to see if I can get it tightened up.

PS  The strategies were great reminders today - and I was glad to see I was familiar with most of them. 

RPI Day 4: Reading Apprenticeships and Guided Reading

 

*First image - Student Voice about what we are doing with teaching the reading strategies and why...

*Quote - more the "Teacher reminder" - To make everything visible! 

It has been a while so a quick review of what I have been learning:

• to become more student - centred and intentional with our text selection (based on initial data collection - RPI days 1-2)
• Reminders to including all 6 kinds of reading in your program and instruction:

From the Manaiakalani RPI slide introduction 

•  varied ways to approach groups (RPI day 3) dependent on individual learner / class dynamic needs (social-emotional) as well as academic (CL level), and Curricular goals or learning intentions (skill building, content, strategies)

Today was a good day for me to wrap my head around my own background literacy models and the ones used more commonly in NZ at primary, Guided Reading, through to transitioning at junior secondary with a Reader Apprenticeship model.  The aim is to make sure the reading skills, strategies and metacognition skills are clear to students as they build their skills with increasingly varied and complex text types across the curriculum.  I struggled to manage Guided Reading Groups - planning for 5 groups a week in primary.  I have also struggled at secondary to use guided reading groups.  Largely due to challenges with class dynamics and high needs, so I had been looking forward to this session to discuss ways to make this more manageable. 

After discussions today and examples, I am thinking this year, while I am working through the RPI training, I will be implementing bits and pieces as I learn.  I hope next year to be able to have a more consistent and cohesive plan.  I am looking forward to checking out the digital teacher modeling book.  I still like the old scrapbook models too - but in this post-covid world with our attendance so up and down, I also see the value in making it all visible online.  My worry is that it does require a lot of time to set up and maintain things like the Teacher workbook, modeling books, Hapara workspaces/or Class sites, etc. That is a lot of digital time teachers need above and beyond the in-class instruction time.  I will be looking to streamline (pick and choose) the aspects that will work best for me next year.  Additionally, there are times when we need students to be offline.  Balance will always be a struggle. 

Guided ---> Apprenticeship Reading

These 2 slides from the above link were really helpful for me to see the difference between guided reading in primary and what is the Apprenticeship model.

 

I also really appreciated the acknowledgment (backed by the research) that reinforces more than one way to approach your Reading Apprenticeship - structured reading planning. 

Question: Listening to the news yesterday, I am wondering what is meant by "structured literacy" in secondary?  Is this a particular model chosen as "best practice" or multiple models to draw from?

Other key points that are take-aways that I hope to share with students in the next few weeks are: